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Show THE MAN WHO FAILED. We read and hear every day of the men who succeed, who tells of the man who fails? Yet but few succeed, those who fail are many. They are everywhere, they belong to all ranks of life. And all the virtues do not belong to the successful ones, thought one might think they did from what Is said. One of those who fall died here not long ago. He began to fail early in life for his mother died a few days after he was born and there is no other such calamity to fall upon a child. His second failure was that he had a step-mother who did not understand children and thus this last state was worse than the first. However he grew and his discipline was mostly made up of hard knocks. But his brain was clover. He picked up more learning than any other youth of his acquaintance and age. Indeed his books were well-nigh his only company and they were enough, for as he read the bitterness of his life and the squalor of his surroundings seemed to meit away, and M gathering near and around him there seemed to M come celestial forms and in his ear was the M rhythm of melodies sweeter than the music of M this world. He entered young manhood with no H well-defined plans except that as all good comes H from labor, all good and all progress, it was both H his duty and his privilege to work. He was capa- H ble, In every sphere where h was tried ho ac- H quitted himself with honor and men said he was H on the right path, the one that leads to honest H wealth and honest fame. Then a young girl H crossed his path. There wore other prettier, H brighter, better girls, but he could not see it. To H him she was the only one and she encouraged H him. Every day she bent all the incantations B at her command to lure him until the enchant- fl ment absorbed his whole nature. Then she sud- B denly forsook him and married one who would H not have to strive for a fortune. The shock was B awful to him; the moro pitiable because he ut- fl tered no plaint, gave no outward sign how deep- fl ly he was wounded, how the earth seemed dis- B halved under his feet and every star had melted fl from the sky. He was like a mourner whose grief fl is too deep to find relief in tears. But he lived fl on because he felt that it was duty to live and M to work and to do what he cnuld. And he was M gentler, kindlier, moro patient and considerate M of others than ever, for sorrow to the unselfish M brings out a pity for the sorrows and weaknesses H of others. He entered upon a business life, when H he seemed on the suro and swift way to succees H a flood came and swept away all that he had. Ho H tried again, beginning at tho lowest round and H his next enemy was fire that -not only swept away H all that he had, but left him in debt. By his toll H he paid tho last cent of his Indebtedness and kept H on working for he not only had a conscience but H he had faith In himself and hope that never failed H him. In leisure hours ho read and studied and H to engage him in conversation was as good as to H attend a learned man's lecture. In the meantime H he had been pushed across tho continent, the mile fl stones of his journey being the misfortunes that fl had marked the way; one to mark where his joy fl died, another where his hopes received almost a B death-wound, another where in the night while fl he slept his youth died, and so absorbed was fl he that next morning when he took again, to the fl trail he did not miss what had ceased to cheer fl him and give buoyancy to his steps. fl In the west, when he reached it, the ruling fl Industry was mining, so ho freshened up all his fl knowledge of geology, took new lessons from the fl experience of those around him upon ore-forma- fl tions and started forth to find a mine. He found fl several and worked for years holding his loca- fl tlons and trying to get them In form to attract fl the attention and help of capital. But on one oc- fl caslon by a fall from a treacherous ladder he I shattered an arm and a leg, and when after long I months of suffering he once moro got about he I found that his mines had beou appropriated by I others and ho was too feeble to fight, too poor to I contest the spurious claims set up to oust him. I And now old age had come upon him and tho vis- I Ions that had kept earth and pky radiant around I and above him began to grow dim; his sleep was I troubled, his morning awakenings were no longer I filled with the peace which comes with man's I I S jlllit abiding faith in himself. But there were no com- I ll llilll plainings. He met his friends in his old cheerful ( I i'$ If lis gentle way. Ho uttered no reproaches against a I 1 IIllP llQrd fortune' he stin clunS to his old belief that I 1 III W If a raan does not 8UCceed is uis own fault' and I :'l I'l il so he passed down the last slope and one morning I ? I i II 1 ' t was told that he WaS dead Th f6W friends that B i'NIl 1 stiU remainGd gathered around him and tender- B '1 ill 'I Iy gavo llIs remnlns back to hIs motner earth; B Ml 1 ii she foldlnS him within her arms and shading his B FflMvl ' eyes from'the Ullt' Then those frIends had car B 11 III P rled and Dlaced upon llIs rave a ereat rough 1 M'' 1 ; r stone, smoothed one side a little and on the m l'M: I . smoothed side they had these words embossed: M p , , I 1 L "Here sleeps a man who failed." |